Upper Freehold seeks to block medical marijuana site

UPPER FREEHOLD — The township committee tonight will try a new tactic to block a proposed medical marijuana greenhouse in town.

On the agenda is an ordinance that would ban government approval of any land use applications that violate federal law — such as marijuana-growing operations.

The committee voted unanimously to draft the ordinance at a packed public forum last week that attracted well over 100 residents, most in opposition to Breakwater Alternative Treatment Center’s plan to grow medical marijuana within the township.

The nonprofit organization has submitted four zoning applications to establish a greenhouse growing program to cultivate the drug for patients in the Central Jersey region, but committee members said last week they were uneasy about the federal ramifications of having a drug operation in Upper Freehold.

Despite New Jersey’s approval of a strict medical marijuana program, marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I controlled substance on the federal level, meaning it’s still illegal with “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

Committee members fretted that the township would be subject to federal drug raids, prosecution or the loss of federal aid money if Breakwater were to set up shop.

“No one has been able to tell me, no one, that we will be indemnified from federal prosecution, and that’s a no-brainer for me,” Mayor LoriSue Mount said last week.

The township could not provide a copy of the new ordinance yesterday, but as of last week, officials intended it to state that Upper Freehold “will not support or permit any activity that’s inconsistent with federal law,” according to the suggestion of Committee Member Stephen Alexander.

Breakwater’s application probably would require approval from the local planning or zoning board, not the committee, but the ordinance title refers to “township government approval.”

It’s a move intended to slow down or even stop Breakwater’s farming proposal, but an official at the nonprofit seemed unconcerned last week and said it had no plans to pull out of Upper Freehold.

“We’re always looking at different locations but we’re not abandoning our plans,” said Jon Fisher, a Breakwater board member.

“We didn’t just whimsically choose this community, we chose it because we’re building a farm, we’re building a greenhouse and this was the right place to do it.”